


build a house, make a life

by thisapathy



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-18 22:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5946319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisapathy/pseuds/thisapathy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carl makes it out with Rick and Judith after the prison falls. Starts in 4x09</p>
            </blockquote>





	build a house, make a life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Grimecesty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grimecesty/gifts).



> repost! i accidentally deleted this when i was trying to do something else. i lost all my kudos and comments, so if y'all feel inclined to leave them again it'd be much appreciated ♥
> 
> \+ starts just before "After"  
> ++ in which carl never has his little bitchfit because he makes it out with rick and judith, and that's enough

Carl's thankful that when the prison falls, he makes it out with Rick and Judith. Sure, the others are his family too, but Rick and Judith come first above everyone else.

Rick's injured and Carl's saddled with the burden of carrying both Judith and the diaper bag and his gun. It's okay, though, because it's like he says: Rick and Judith come first.

He tries not to think about who survived and who didn't. He doesn't have time to be angry at The Governor for destroying their home. His first priorities are finding shelter for Rick and Judith. If they didn't have Judith with them, they would be looking for food first. But the sun is setting fast and Rick is injured and Judith needs somewhere safe to sleep. Carl's growling stomach is just going to have to wait.

As they approach a street lined with a few houses, Carl turns to Rick—Rick who can barely walk and Rick who can barely keep up—and looks at him sympathetically. "Which one?"

Rick slows, wheezing, and gestures to the first house on the left. "This one's as good as any."

Carl nods, hoists Judith higher on his hip and leads Rick to the front door. When Rick catches up, Carl pushes Judith into his arms gently. "I gotta clear it," he says softy.

"I can—"

"You can't," he replies. His _please don't argue with me_ tone is very clear. "You're injured, I've done this before." Rick nods reluctantly and Carl opens the door, gun drawn. Room by room, he makes sure there's no walkers, no broken windows, no occupants. After a quick sweep upstairs, he comes back to the porch and takes Judith, helping Rick limp inside.

There's a couch in the living room and Rick kind of collapses on it. Carl carries Judith into the kitchen and sets her on the floor, grabbing 2 abandoned cups left on the counter and putting them in front of her. On his way upstairs, he hears the distinct sound of plastic clacking against tile floor. He secures the house late into the night. It's been dark for almost 2 hours by the time he settles into the makeshift bed on the floor. Carl falls asleep with Judith on one side of him, and his gun on the other.

+

In the morning, Rick's not awake. He won't wake up; he's unconscious. Upon this realization, Carl's heart sinks and aches in his chest. He leaves Rick asleep in the living room, feeds Judith and changes her diaper. That's when he realizes they only have 2 diapers left and those won't last through the day. He has to go out; he doesn't have a choice. He leaves her alone in a room upstairs, figures that's her best bet. He kisses her head twice with tears in his eyes, prays this isn't the last time he'll see her. On his way out the door, he does the same to Rick.

+

Carl makes a clean sweep: food, bottled water, diapers, even a rusted red wagon to put it all in. He's relieved to find out that the house is undisturbed, though Rick is still unconscious. After he pulls his wagon into the living room and secures the door, he runs upstairs to see Judith. She needs a diaper change and she's fussy, but she's alive and okay and—for a few more days, at least—Carl is, too.

He doesn't know if Rick is going to wake up. He doesn't know if Rick is dying, but he can't take the chance. He knows that Rick would want him to keep Judith safe, so he kisses Rick's forehead and carries his sister upstairs for the night.

+

Carl wakes to the sound of loud pounding. He grabs his gun, rushing out of the room and to the top of the stairs. When he sees Rick standing there, leaning against the banister, Carl lets out a long breath. He rushes down the stairs, all but throwing himself into Rick’s arms. “Dad!”

Rick wraps an arm around his shoulder. He’s still wheezing, but he rests his chin in the junction between Carl’s neck and shoulder. “You didn’t hear me callin’ you?”

“No,” Carl mumbles into Rick’s shoulder.

Rick runs a hand through Carl’s hair, pulling back. “Where’s your sister?”

“She’s upstairs. I thought—you were unconscious yesterday. I brought her up here to sleep because I didn’t know if you...”

“That’s smart,” Rick says decidedly.

Carl nods, going back upstairs and grabbing Judith to bring her downstairs. He’s still sighing with relief. Rick may not be in tiptop shape, but he’s alive and talking and moving around.

Downstairs, Carl sits on the opposite side of the couch with Judith in his lap. “I went on a supply run yesterday,” he discloses quietly. He holds onto Judith, lets her play with his fingers. “I had to leave Judy upstairs.”

“That’s not smart going out there like that, leaving her alone.”

”I didn’t have a choice,” Carl insists. “I had to. We only had 2 diapers left, we needed food—I found a lot. We can stay here for a few days.”

”That what you want? To stay here?”

Carl shrugs. As much as he would love to be with the others, they aren’t in any imminent danger here. Walkers are few and far between. Yes, Carl almost got bit more than once on his supply run but he’s alive, isn’t he? A little stability would be nice. They need to regroup. Not to mention Rick can barely walk. “I think we should stay here for a while,” he says slowly. “You can recover. I’m sure there’s more houses around. We need to stock up on formula for Judy.”

“Alright,” Rick relents.

“Thank you,” Carl whispers, leaning down to kiss the top of Judith’s head.

+

Carl patches Rick up and, thankfully, the house is stocked with plenty of men’s clothes to fit them both. Day after day Carl goes on runs, leaving an injured Rick to take care of Judith. Rick is getting better, but he’s still in no shape to be fighting walkers and rummaging for food, so Carl goes and Rick stays with the baby.

When Carl returns with antibiotics and a bag full of stale chocolate bars, Rick has cleaned up the house. If they’re going to be staying, they should at least make it look like someone lives here. That's what Rick tells him.

Upon inspecting Carl’s haul, Rick hums. “We make a pretty damn good team.”

Carl grins, first at his pile of Big Kats, and then up at his father.

+

By the time Rick’s fully recovered, the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder. They have a fence around the house, though walkers are still few and far between. Rick’s going on runs now and Carl’s staying with Judith. Carl’s nesting, for lack of a better word—cleaning and organizing the upstairs, bringing anything they can use down to the first floor. They’ve managed to find and bring home a crib from a house a couple blocks away, and that’s currently where Judith spends her nights.

Rick takes the couch and gives Carl the mattress on the floor. Rick promises that they’ll bring one of the beds from upstairs to put the mattress on eventually, but Carl isn’t too worried about it. Things are good, bed frame or not.

+

The more it’s just the three of them, the more Carl enjoys it. The three of them, their little family, is all that matters to him now. There’s no other word to describe him other than possessive. The thought of anything happening to Judith or Rick makes Carl’s insides burn. He guesses this transformation began when Rick was injured and everything fell on Carl’s shoulders. But now Carl focuses on caring for both of them, and it’s not until Carl fusses over Rick’s ever-growing beard that he realizes just how much of a wifely role he’s filling.

Rick smirks at him. “You sound just like your mother.”

Carl smiles and laughs. “I’m just saying that you look kinda like a hobo.”

“Tell you what: next run I’ll look for a razor.”

+

As promised, Rick finds a trimmer and cuts his beard way back. It’s not like Carl’s telling Rick to shave it all off because if he’s being honest he likes Rick with a beard. Carl doesn’t know if they’ve been together for too long or what, but the more time they spend together, the more Carl finds himself liking things he shouldn’t.

+

Every night Carl and Rick take turns reading to Judith. It helps pass the time and it helps put Judith to sleep. When they’re not eating and when Rick’s not out of the house, they spend time with Judith. There’s nothing else to do, really, and it’s not like they mind; they love her more than anything.

+

When Judith crawls for the first time, Carl beams at Rick and Rick beams right back. The overwhelming feeling of joy makes him do something stupid: he leans over, puts a hand on Rick’s knee and kisses him. Rick’s probably stunned because he doesn’t kiss back for a short moment. But Carl holds it there, and slowly Rick threads his hand into Carl’s hair and kisses back. Rick's rough, warm hand comes up to rest on Carl's cheek and when he pulls away, he gazes straight into Carl's eyes like he's trying to determine something.

Carl resists the urge to nuzzle Rick's hand. Instead, he clears his throat and asks, "What was that?"

Rick shakes his head, drops his hand. "I don't know."

+

They don't talk about it. Carl avoids Rick because he doesn't want to talk about it. He knows he should've have done that, but Rick definitely shouldn't have kissed back, right? Right. He doesn't know where this leaves them, how it'll change life for the 3 of them.

So, Carl just focuses on Judith. He finds a pair of scissors in the upstairs bathroom and sits down with her on the floor. As he trims the ends that are so long they're curling up, he remembers the haircuts Lori gave him right after this all started. Even when the world was ending, Lori tried to find some semblance of normal. Now it takes everything in Carl to try and do the same.

He's just about finished when he hears the thumping of Rick's boots up the stairs. Rick pokes his head in the bathroom, leaning against the door frame. "She looks good," he remarks.

"Thanks," Carl smiles.

+

Carl thinks about the kiss a lot. It's been almost a week and he hasn't mentioned it. Rick hasn't either, but that doesn't mean that Carl's forgotten about it. Judging by the way Carl catches Rick looking at him, he hasn't forgotten it either.

It's raining out, late in the afternoon. Judith's napping in her crib. Carl's stretched out on the couch with Rick sitting at the end of it, reading a tattered copy of _The Green Mile_. For some time, Carl lays on his back with his hands on his stomach watching the way Rick's eyelashes twitch every time he reads a line of text. And then Carl can't stand it, he sits up, palms sweaty. "Dad?"

Rick puts the book down, giving Carl his undivided attention. "What?"

Carl moves closer, pressing their lips together. He grabs Rick's book and tosses it behind the couch, moving to straddle Rick's hips. Rick's kissing back, arms wrapping around Carl's torso, pulling him closer and closer until Carl's straddling his lap.

Maybe they've been alone together for too long. Carl knows they shouldn't be doing this, he knows he shouldn't want to touch Rick the way he does. It's just now that the world's ended, it doesn't make much sense to cling to the last little bit of morality, not when two people clearly want something so badly.

+

They keep kissing. It's light at first, and innocent. It's nothing more than a comfort to both of them. But when Carl realizes that he and Rick start making out late at night—slow languid kissing as Judith lay beside them in her crib—he knows something's changed.

+

They're running low on supplies. Rick's decided that they've exhausted all their local resources; they've been picking these houses for months. When he proposes an overnight run alone, leaving Carl and Judith, Carl nearly has a heart attack. But then Rick reminds him of all the things Judith can't live without—formula, diapers, warm clothes that fit—and Carl relents, barely.

That night, with Judith sound asleep in her crib across the room, they make love for the first time. It's Carl's first time ever, and it's probably Rick's first time with a guy because he seems nervous and hesitant. Even when Carl kisses him and reassures him it's okay, Rick still treats Carl like he's a fragile piece of China.

Some minutes later, Carl comes, Rick's name falling from his lips in a soft whimper.

+

Rick brings home a high chair after the overnight run. He brings back a truck, a gas can of fuel and a crate of canned goods. Carl watches through the window as Rick easily takes out 2 stray walkers from outside the fences. He sighs with relief, and smiles back when Rick grins at him through the window.

Carl carries Judith outside, holding her at his hip. "Didn't think I'd hear you coming down the road."

"Good run," Rick says, shrugging. He leans down to kiss Judith's head and then Carl's mouth. "Things go okay here?"

"Mhm." He smiles down at Judith and then back at Rick. "I'll put her inside and help you unload."

+

For dinner, Carl throws together a soup from a few of the canned goods Rick brought. He knows they should be a little more conservative, but Rick gives Carl the go-ahead to make whatever he wants. So, he makes a 3 bean soup and they eat at the kitchen table with Judith in her high chair. He feeds her between spoonfuls of soup for himself, and neither he nor Rick are expecting it when the word 'mama' tumbles out of Judith's mouth. It's bittersweet because Lori's not here, but it has Rick and Carl in stitches because Judith's looking straight at Carl when she says it.

In moments like these it seems like it’s just the 3 of them, and the outside world doesn’t exist.

+

Carl kicks himself for not keeping track of how many days they've been in this house— _their_ house. It's been a while, because Judith is walking now and two winters have passed. They've gone so far undetected with minimal walker threats. With each passing season, Rick expands the perimeter around the house. Now they've got a garden and a horse and the old Chevy that Rick takes on runs from time to time.

They work hard during the day. Enough so that when night comes around, they can put Judith to bed and settle down together for a few hours at a time.

This night's particularly cold. In front of the roaring fireplace, Carl leans against Rick's chest, fingers playing with a stray thread on his shirt. "What are we gonna tell Judith about us?" he asks softly, looking up at Rick. "Either... either I'm not her brother, or you're not her father. She can't know."

Rick rubs Carl's arm gently, kissing the top of his head. "I know."

Carl sighs, turning around in Rick's arms. "I'm okay with not being her brother. But..." He trails off, pressing his lips to Rick's lightly. "That means that you're gonna have to be 'Rick' to me."

Rick's brow raises. "Is that right?"

Carl grins, biting his bottom lip lightly. "I can still call you 'Daddy', right?"

Rick throws his head back laughing, tightening his arms around Carl's waist. "Wouldn't have it any other way."


End file.
